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State information > Massachusetts Disability Statistics Table From 2003 American Community Survey

Massachusetts Disability Data Table From the 2003 American Community Survey

Estimates for 2003

An estimated 774,000 people in Massachusetts have a disability, or 13.3% of the population age 5 and over. An estimated 132,000 people, or 2.3% of the population 5 and over, have difficulty performing self-care activities, also known as Activities of Daily Living, such as dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home.

Read more about these data.

Subject Population (Thousands) With a disability (Thousands) With a disability (Percent) With a self-care difficulty (Thousands) With a self-care difficulty (Percent)
Total in Massachusetts
(ages 5 and over)
5,821 774 13.3% 132 2.3%
Disability Type          
Sensory   197   38 19.1%
Mobility   413   113 27.3%
Cognitive   274   67 24.4%
Self-care   132   132  
Leaving the home   218   101 46.3%
Work disability   439   109 24.7%
Gender          
Male 2,798 353 12.6% 55 2.0%
Female 3,023 421 13.9% 77 2.5%
Age          
Children (5-17) 1,093 73 6.7% 9 0.9%
    5-15 936 63 6.7% 8 0.9%
    16-17 157 11 6.9% 1 0.7%
Working Ages (18-64) 3,928 384 9.8% 58 1.5%
    18-44 2,394 161 6.7% 21 0.9%
    45-64 1,534 222 14.5% 37 2.4%
Elderly (65+) 801 317 39.6% 64 8.0%
    65-74 403 116 28.9% 20 5.0%
    75-84 307 137 44.7% 25 8.3%
    85+ 91 63 69.6% 19 20.5%
Race          
White 5,000 668 13.4% 115 2.3%
African American 375 51 13.7% 10 2.6%
Asian/Pacific Islander 273 23 8.4% 3 1.0%
American Indian/Alaska Native 35 7 21.3% 2 4.3%
Ethnicity          
Hispanic 409 69 16.8% 12 2.9%
Non-Hispanic 5,412 705 13.0% 120 2.2%
Family Income          
In poverty 538 146 27.2% 27 5.0%
Above poverty 5,272 627 11.9% 104 2.0%
Benefit Recipiency          
Social Security (OASDI) 876 365 41.7% 75 8.6%
Supplemental Security Income 122 115 94.2% 23 18.7%
Employment (Ages 18-64)          
Employed 2,916 139 4.8% 9 0.3%
Unemployed (in labor force) 219 29 13.1% 3 1.5%
Not in labor force 789 216 27.4% 45 5.7%
Living Arrangement          
Lives alone 718 200 27.9% 33 4.6%
Lives with others 5,103 574 11.2% 99 1.9%

Source: Tabulations by the Center for PAS from the 2003 American Community Survey (ACS).

About the Massachusetts 2003 ACS Disability Data

The Center for Personal Assistance Services has compiled state and national data on the prevalence of overall disability and of self-care difficulty, by gender, age, race and ethnicity, type of disability, family income, benefit recipiency, employment status, and living arrangement. These statistics are based on our tabulations of public use data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) for 2003, containing information on over 1 million residents of randomly selected U.S. households. Because it is a household survey, people living in institutions such as nursing homes are not included.

These statistics from the 2003 ACS are both more current and more valid than estimates obtained from either the 2000 Census or previous years of the ACS. Problems discovered in two of the six disability questions, leading to a substantial overestimate of the disability population in the 2000 Census, have been fixed in the 2003 ACS questionnaire. These problems also affected prior years of the ACS, but to a lesser extent than the 2000 Census, due to different data collection procedures.

Previous years of disability data from the ACS:

 

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